


Discovery

by columbinefields



Series: Shifting Sands Dying Stars [1]
Category: DnD - Fandom, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), FR - Fandom, Flight Rising
Genre: Aliens, Dragons, Other, space, weird shit coming out of the sky when it should stay thsere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21761590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/columbinefields/pseuds/columbinefields
Summary: maybe aliens?
Series: Shifting Sands Dying Stars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568389
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Discovery

The day starts as quietly as any other. The lord’s manor in Eiliheim stirs, sleepy in the typically foggy city. The servants within the manor work on getting the day started, preparing breakfast, signaling for the guard shift. It’s quiet and pleasant, and one servant goes to wake the lord, but is met with an empty room. This isn’t abnormal. Morghan typically wakes before others, taking a walk around the city before he returns to his room to prepare for his duties of the day. His absence is written off. 

When lunch comes around, a local shopkeeper arrives for his meeting with Lord Morghan. He’s directed to the lord’s study, where he takes meetings typically. The shopkeeper arrives, and sits, and he waits. He waits for what seems ages, feeling uncomfortable and at ill ease. The lord’s chair sits empty, his papers and books neatly arranged on the desk. An ink pen is untouched, dry, as its normal wielder has yet to use it that day. An hour passed, then two, before the shopkeeper wanders out to find a servant, asking what was possibly holding the young lord up. He’s met with confused and surprised gazes. Had Morghan never returned?

The city guards try to keep it under wraps. They tell each other, some flying out to contact other lords of other cities, to see if they had heard from or seen Lord Morghan, but it seems no one has. Rumors spread quickly, the shopkeeper telling his employees, who in turn tell other residents. It takes only a few hours, and by dinner time, the whole city knows. Lord Morghan is missing. 

————————————————

The night is deep and dark, stars lighting the night sky, two moons slowly passing over the land. Here in Amarantha, near the Southern Realm Gates, Ophelia sits inside her observatory, a cup of coffee in one hand. Her other hand holds a spoon, and she idly dumps spoonful after spoonful of sugar into it, her thoughts elsewhere. Her workspace is chaotic, papers and books everywhere. A notebook sits in her lap, but she’s looking through her large telescope, eyes focused on that above her. 

"The skies have been behaving oddly, " she says out loud to herself, not really expecting an answer. No one is around her after all. "The greater wyrm constellation has lost its structure… 5 stars now missing…" beside her there’s a soft click, and she straightens up and puts the teacup aside so she can flip the tape over. She presses the record button once more. "It’s moving across the sky. Devouring light in its wake…. But… what is it? " 

"A trick of your mind, perhaps," offers a soft voice, and Ophelia looks up, seeing Cinder climbing the stairs. He pushes aside a stack of books, holding up a small tupperware bowl. "Ophelia, you forgot dinner, didn’t you? You were supposed to come to my home. I made pie and everything. " he pouts, walking over to set the food beside her on the table. 

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I got distracted… the stars came out early. " she gives a sheepish smile, setting her coffee cup aside to take the food. Peeling back the lid, she inhales deeply and sighs softly. She takes a bite of it and hums happily, feathered ears fanning. "Delicious. "

"Would’ve been better if you’d been on time, " Cinder lightly teases, giving her a small smile. He clears a stool off, setting her papers and books stacked on it aside, before sitting down. "Looking at the odd star movement again?"

"Not movement, Cinder. Disappearances. They’re gone. " she eats a bit of food then stands, hurrying over to where he’s sitting. She pushes his stool over in front of her telescope, beckoning him to look through its lenses. “Completely wiped out. By what, I don’t know… but it’s traveling south. It started two months ago, over the labyrinth, and now moves down towards the South Pole. I don’t know how far it goes, but it’s leaving a trail in its wake."

Cinder looks up at her, then leans forward to look through the telescope to see what she means. He moves it, gently, seeing this darkened trail through the night sky, as if some black river has washed away the stars. Frowning, he moves it back to its previous placement, only to see three more stars snuffed out. "Ophelia, it’s happening," he says quickly, and she nearly shoves him to the ground as she moves to now peer into the night sky.

She watches as another star blinks out, then another, and three more after that. The trail moves faster, a dark, giant blot in the sky, before there is an explosion of light. A cacophony of light douses the sky, near blinding. Cinder shields his face, unable to look, but Ophelia watches, wide eyed, unflinching, as two forms fall to the earth in the great distance. She springs from her place where she stands, gathering maps and papers, plotting a course. She had seen it fall, and based upon its speed and trajectory…. She circles a location, standing tall and smiling brightly. 

"I’m afraid our dinners will be postponed from here out, Cinder. I’m making a trip to Freynesse. Whatever that is, whatever is devouring our stars, has fallen down into Freynesse, possibly near its southern borders." She shows him the map, half shoving it into his face as she hurries away, grabbing a pack and throwing books and supplies into it. "I have to see it—this could be a grand discovery!" Her mind moves at a million miles an hour, thinking only of the possibilities, the danger, the excitement. A real discovery. She snatched the map from Cinder, rolling it up and putting it in its proper place in her bag. 

"A star-devourer… I wonder what it will look like. "

—————————————

In Eiliheim, as the burst of light happens, one figure stands outside the city’s gates, sitting on a large rock, watching. The bright, consuming lights wash over him, reflecting of the dark glass eyes of his mask. Malari, a young fae, sits with a pack in his arms. His frills twitch, and as the two, giant dark figures in the sky fall to the earth, he seems to disappear into the shadows, unseen. 

The large figures crash into the earth with a large explosion, causing the nearby cities to rumble and shake with tremors. As the smoke and rush clear, it seems as if a black lake has filled the craters left behind, deep and dark, but reflecting no light within them at all. Small ripples surge from the center of this lake, and as the lights die down, and the night turns silent once more, Malari appears at the edge of the lake, not twenty feet from where he had been earlier. 

Walking around the circumference of the crater, he pauses, head tilting. Webbed wings spreading, he flits above the water, moving out to the center of the black water. The expressionless mask he wears hides his curiosity, and he gets closer to the edge. With a flash of movement, he quickly reaches an arm into the lake. The liquid trembles and surges as if it’s the sea in the middle of a storm before falling quiet once more. Malari slowly pulls his arm out, and with it, another arm, limp and attached to a weak body. 

"Just like Morghan said," he muses quietly to himself.


End file.
